Breathing in Bristol.

by Pie Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:32

"Only about 0.03 percent of the Earth's atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide

Nitrogen, oxygen, and argon constitute about 78 percent, 20 percent, and 0.93 percent of the atmosphere, respectively."

So now it seems that those who would have had us believe that CO2 was the main culprit, now thanks to common sense, we have a more sensible approach to CO2 ;-

""After all, while most of us may be willing to wait out the effects of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for a time just to see if we really do get warmer weather and more abundant crops out of the deal; how many of us want to wait and see how little oxygen we can survive on?"

We have a shift to "Oxygen depletion" as the next big scare story to worry our children to sleep with.

by Me Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:50

Lies, Damn Lies and The Bristol Evening Post!

If you daren't use a good headline, pick one that won't fight back!

That seems to be the bullying strategy of some Bristol Evening Post journalism.

Its article on Saturday, 9 August Bristol's Old Market on Toxic Danger List is a case in point.

The story is utterly misleading about Old Market and leaves readers believing something that is patently untrue.

Whether this is deliberate scaremongering, just bad journalism, or both is difficult to say.

Either way, it wantonly damages Old Market's recent attempts at regeneration after years of having to live with another, ill-deserved reputation.

People who live or work in Old Market are no more at risk than those who live or work in Cabot Circus.

The statement that "The busy street, which provides one of the gateways into the city centre, is on a list of 15 'danger areas' [...]" is simply misleading.

It is not the Old Market Street gateway that has been monitored for toxic pollution.

The pollution measuring station just happens to be called "Old Market" because it is sited near the junction of Bond Street and Old Market Street.

In fact, it is located under the pedestrian footbridge, behind the old escalator building.

Obviously, it measures primarily the toxicity of the fumes from the traffic going through the Temple Way underpass, a busy dual carriageway.

This is the traffic that passes Cabot Circus and far exceeds that travelling through Old Market.

If the sensor station had been sited on the other side of the road, it might have been called "Castle Park". Then the headline might have been the absurd,
"Castle Park on toxic danger list".

It is also true that there are only two functioning monitoring stations of this type in Bristol, so inevitably the data will refer to the area in which they are sited. In reality, it may or may not be any different from other parts of Bristol.

No doubt the story is newsworthy. People should be alerted to the dangerous levels of traffic pollution in Bristol.

However, the choice to malign Old Market when the news refers just as easily to Cabot Circus is despicable.

It clearly has not mattered to the Post’s journalist or editor that this sort of scaremongering unfairly damages Old Market's already unjust reputation and is therefore utterly irresponsible.

by Who am I today Tue Sep 08, 2009 11:57

Utter rubbish!

Every fridge-magnet knows that if you burn anything oxygen will be consumed, but then in the same process CO2 is released and therefore green things grow better, releasing even more oxygen.

So in order to make the environment greener it is necessary to burn more not less!

by Bizzy Tue Sep 08, 2009 12:46

Good article Mello, I had not given any thought to atmospheric oxygen levels before, thanks for that.

"We have a shift to "Oxygen depletion" as the next big scare story"

Gob-smacking insensitivity, stupidity and ignorance!

Capitalist / denialist "profitable business as usual" at any cost, never mind the damage done to life on earth or the planet.

'Lets make loadsa money - fuck the planet' - capitalist philosophy at its worst.

Capitalists steal pollute spin lie and deny everything / admit nothing / just grab the money and run quick before the planets population wake up and string them up!

by Anarchist606 Tue Sep 08, 2009 13:43

Only about 0.03 percent of the Earth's atmosphere consists of carbon dioxide

Yes and you seem to be suggesting that in some way the small percentage means that the issues over the concentration of CO2 is not a problem. Sadly, it is: the issue is not the total % but the impact that a particular gas has on the system as a whole and CO2 has a major impact.
Full info: http://www.skepticalscience.com/human-co2-smaller-than-...s.htm


Every fridge-magnet knows that if you burn anything oxygen will be consumed, but then in the same process CO2 is released and therefore green things grow better, releasing even more oxygen. So in order to make the environment greener it is necessary to burn more not less!

Hmm. Its a bit more complicated than that. Nature has evolved a fine balancing act of CO2 that works well - yes it shifts the overall %, but over 1000s of years, not decades. Natural fires work within this. Human activity (burning stuff) unlocks CO2 at a far greater rate than the natural cycles have evolved to deal with, hence the problems. In addition the release of particulate matter can also impact the climate system in a variety of ways.

by You must be chocking Tue Sep 08, 2009 13:59

They ban smoking tobacco on health grounds but do nothing about atmospheric pollution levels.
Infact BCC have just finished chopping a lot of trees down in one of the most polluted areas - Lawrence Hill/Easton. It beggers belief.
Since lead was removed from petrol the benzodiazines that have replaced it are extremely carconergenic.
There are many smoking cars around at present and what with the cops letting cameras do the highway policing little is done here either.
Yet again the authorities fail us while we pay for their mis-service.
FUCK CARS in cities.

by Anne Greagsby Tue Sep 08, 2009 14:30

I am organizing a Climate Change Action in Cardiff and hope you will do the same in your town or city, on September 21 at 12:18 PM.

It’s one of hundreds of rallies taking place on September 21st all across the world.

On the morning of September 21, everyone participating will set our alarms and gather together a few minutes before the assigned time, at locations chosen by the hosts in our local area.

When our alarms go off, we'll hold up our mobile phones and find each other, and then, as a group, call our leaders to urge them to go to Copenhagen and sign a fair, ambitious, and binding climate treaty this year.

We'll make as much noise as we can, while recording videos and photos for the UN presentation -- then head back to work, school, or home to upload the results!

by Chuffy Tue Sep 08, 2009 14:37

No @Pie, wrong again, its not a 'shift' as you call or spin it, just another serious issue or concern to add to the list of stuff for anyone with common sense to be concerned about, along with Climate Change, Pollution generally and many other things these latter days.

Common sense? ...... surely you must have heard about it? ...... although amongst capitalists and denialists its not nearly so common, about as common as rocking horse shit actually.

by Bristolian Tue Sep 08, 2009 15:07

I dont care if insane people comment on Indymedia, we can all have a laugh about it, and no real harm gets done hopefully, but dont get me wrong, I work with people with learning difficulties, so I do have compassion for the less 'sane' in our society naturally.
What I do object to however - is people who no doubt think they are sane spouting stuff like "Global Oxygen depletion" is just another 'scare story', as if it were something people who care about life and the planet invented merely to criticise industrial-consumerist-society.
Its simply verging on the insane to suggest that oxygen-breathing life-forms do not need to be concerned about atmospheric oxygen levels whilst humankind is burning fossil-fuels like there is no tomorrow and at the same time cutting down the worlds forests as if there was no today.

by Us Wed Sep 09, 2009 10:28

Always amusing, (hysterical even) to hear the old pro-capitalist never-ending same old same old harping back to the past ills of other systems to distract from capitalisms disastrous failings of today, not least that of anthropogenic global warming.

Notice how the old capitalist tactic is always to harp back to the past, where as we who seeking sustainable change and living for all are more concerned with the future?

The only future capitalists are interested in is 'future profits'

by Mell O Wed Sep 09, 2009 11:50

Denialists may not of heard about it, or want to, more likely they just do not want it talked about.

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Oxygen_Depletion

Global warming is not the only consequence of increasing greenhouse gasses from natural and anthropomorphic sources.

Oxygen used to be about 20% of the atmosphere; but today, in places like Tokyo, it is as low as 7%.

Carbon dioxide is actually a fairly heavy gas (molecular weight 44 as compared to oxygen 32 and nitrogen 28) so that during times of little wind, it would have a tendency to settle in pockets.

Compromised levels of oxygen have a wide range of health and vitality consequences ranging from headaches and dizziness to an increased susceptibility to cancer and even death among those whose systems are already weak from other causes.

This is true in the oceans as well, which are seeing an increase in hypoxic (oxygen deficient) dead zones in extreme cases.

"I do not think most people realize the dilemma which seems to boil down to the choice between breathable air or continued and increased burning of fuels." Adrian Akau, NEC

"Dead zones (hypoxic i.e. oxygen deficient water) in the coastal zones are increasing, typically surrounding major industrial and agricultural centers.

This is commonly occurring due to nutrient pollution, in the form of nitrogen and phosphorous leading to algal blooms and eutrophication." (UNEP/GRID; 2004)

"Oxygen is essential for all plants and animals to survive, whether they live on the land or in the water. Aquatic organisms rely on oxygen that is dissolved in the water. In most lakes and streams, the amount of oxygen in the water is continually being replenished by oxygen from the air. Sometimes, however, conditions exist in which the dissolved oxygen in the water is used up by organisms faster than it can be replaced from the air. If all the oxygen used up, the organisms will suffocate." (US EPA)

"The World Resources Institute recently mapped the world’s dead zones and found a whopping 415 eutrophic zones, including 169 that are known to be hypoxic and another 169 that probably are. The researchers believe the number is much higher, since only the United States and the European Union do an adequate job of counting and reporting problem coastal areas. China and other fast-growing Asian economies are likely polluting their coasts, but the problem hasn’t been documented, the researchers say." (Economic Obectorvism; Jan. 8, 2008)

- - - -

"I was certain that the increased burning of carbon fuels with the accompanying destruction of forest has had an adverse impact on the oxygen in our atmosphere and the this site [link] confirms my thinking in a most frightening manner. I do not think most people realize the dilemma which seems to boil down to the choice between breathable air or continued and increased burning of fuels.

"Right now we are stuck with the problem of Global Warming and no one seems to realize that our oxygen supply is becoming much more at risk as time goes by. I know that game fish cannot exist in lakes that have been depleted of oxygen because of excess algae growth stimulated with the dumping of phosphates and similar chemicals but now we are entering a like situation with our own atmosphere. I think the answer is awareness of the problem and the realization that we must turn to other sources of energy. I also believe that the problem of oxygen depletion needs to be brought to the attention of all in order to solve this seemingly innocuous but in truth, serious problem."

"We may be getting to the stage where we will have to be concerned about the amount of oxygen we have left in the atmosphere to breath. I read that the % of oxygen has decreased somewhat in the past century and that some sickness are enhanced because of this. I read that a research paper comparing the health of people living at low compared to high altitudes showed that it was the lack of oxygen that was harmful for certain ailments. Oxygen used to be about 20% of the atmosphere but today in some places, it is as low as 16%. Carbon dioxide is actually a fairly heavy gas (molecular weight 44 as compared to oxygen 32 and nitrogen 28) so that during times of little wind, it would have a tendency to settle in pockets. That is one reason cave exploration can be so hazardous."

"People living in large cities in India have such a high incidence of lung disease that older diesel motors have been banned. I have not read any carbon dioxide studies but reducing the amount of oxygen available, certainly places a strain on the heart, especially for old people with weak hearts and those with any type of lung problems. I sometimes see older folk carting or carrying around a small tank of oxygen as they shop for food."

"Carbon dioxide sequestering seems to be a stupid idea because the process also sequesters oxygen in the process. Someone needs to present calculations showing how the burning of coal, oil and natural gas is affecting our oxygen supply. The question really boils down to "how much oxygen would be left in the atmosphere if all fossil fuels were consumed?" Yes, people will say that trees and algae will take care of the oxygen production but the real concern is what level of oxygen is required to maintain a good healthy atmosphere for humans as well as for other living organisms." -- Adrian Akau, NEC

by Cycler Wed Sep 09, 2009 12:23

I always wear a respirator when cycling in Bristol, at the beginning of the day it is pure white, at the end of every day the filter is grey, often very dark grey.

No doubt capitalists will tell us its all the fault of communism.

The main source of toxic pollution that affects people in Bristol is road traffic.

Although Bristol has some large industrial processes, for example in Avonmouth, these emit pollution through tall chimneys.

This disperses and dilutes the pollution so that the concentrations are very much reduced before it comes into contact with anyone.

In contrast, road traffic emits pollution very close to where people travel, work and live.

Although there have been considerable reductions in emissions from vehicles due to new engine and fuel technology, the sheer volume of traffic on the roads has led to high concentrations of key pollutants in some areas.

Within the traffic fleet HGV's and buses emit more than cars, although the per capita emissions of buses are lower when they operate at full capacity.

Slow moving, congested traffic and very fast traffic (e.g. on motorways) cause the most emissions.

Least emissions are produced by free flowing vehicles driven at moderate speed. The maintenance of vehicles is also very important.

A poorly maintained vehicle will emit many times more pollution than a vehicle that is checked and serviced regularly.

by FOE-er Wed Sep 09, 2009 13:34

With forest resources--"the lungs of the Earth"-- under attack in many regions, some have raised concerns about the planet's oxygen supply.

What is oxygen depletion?

By volume, fresh air is composed of 78.1% nitrogen, 20.9% oxygen, 0.033% carbon dioxide and about 0.9% inert gases, the most abundant of which is argon.

Technically the oxygen content can be considered to be depleted if it falls measurably below 20.9%, and people should not work in conditions where the level drops below 19.5%.

Our planet´s future is under threat as cutting back tropical forests we put our supply of oxygen gas at risk.

Deforestation, or the removal of forests, is a major problem that has devastating effects all over the world. Europeans began clearing forests more than 500 years ago. The invention of modern machinery made the process even easier. By the end of the 19th century, most of the deciduous forest of North America, Australia and New Zealand had been cleared. In the 21st century, tropical forests are being cut and burned at alarming rates in South America and Southeast Asia. Asia as a whole has already lost about 90 percent of its forests.

With forest resources--"the lungs of the Earth"-- under attack in many regions, some have raised concerns about the planet's oxygen supply.

Forests are very important to the world´s climate because they help in rain formation and absorb carbon dioxide (CO2) from the air. As the forests disappear, the weather will change, and some places will dry up.

There are many benefits that we get from our forests. Some of these include cleaner drinking water, a home for plants and animals, economic growth, clean air, recreational opportunities. Another most important benefit we get from trees is called oxygen. If there were no trees to give us oxygen to breath, we would not be able to live. Trees are known as the oxygen supplier to our planet.

As vast forests such as the Amazon are denuded of their beauty and natural resources, our atmosphere is also seriously altered. The forests are stripped faster than they can be replanted, and when severely depleted, photosynthesis is greatly reduced. No photosynthesis, no oxygen. No oxygen, no life. But deforestation continues at a break neck speed in many areas of the world.

Earlier in Jharkhand forest played major role in balancing the temperature difference. But now forest cover is rapidly depleting. Even one of the biggest forest of Asia popularly known as Saranda Forest is also decreasing many fold due to rampant iron ore mining in Jharkhand State. Today the remaining forest areas are unevenly distributed. Bokaro has only 4.4% of area under forest. Similarly Sahebganj has only 2.31%, Dhanbad 12.72%, Deoghar 9.5% and Ranchi only 23.37% of area under vegetation.

At the Survey and Settlement (1902-1910) the area under forests in the Ranchi districts approximated to about 2,281 square miles, i.e. about 32 percent of the total land area of the district. At the Revisional Survey and Settlement (1927-1935) this area shrank to about 1,956 square mils, i.e. 27 percent of the total land area. Thus during a period of 25 years, 325 square miles of forests had disappeared. When the forests were notified under the Bihar Private Forests Act,1946 and demarcation was done only about 1,065 square miles were found under forests in this district. Adding 213 square miles of reserve forests to this, the total area under forest in this district came to 1,278 square miles. Thus in course of a decade over 600 square miles of forests disappeared. Now it has reached up to 23 percent and gradually decreasing further.

Our planet´s future is that by cutting back tropical forests we put our supply of oxygen gas at risk.
The unusually high concentration of oxygen gas on Earth is the result of the oxygen cycle. The biogeochemical cycle describes the movement of oxygen within and between its three main reservoirs on Earth: the atmosphere, the biosphere, and the lithosphere. The main driving factor of the oxygen cycle is photosynthesis, which is responsible for modern Earth´s atmosphere. Photosynthesis releases oxygen into the atmosphere, while respiration and decay remove it from the atmosphere.

Regarding percentage of oxygen present in the atmosphere in the geological past, it was revealed that air bubbles trapped in fossilized amber had been analyzed and found to contain oxygen levels of 38%. Yet today it is well known that the average content of the oxygen in air is only 19% to 21%. If we believe on the report of oxygen level in the fossilized amber, it appears that since the early history of our earth there has been a stunning decrease of 50% in the average oxygen content of the air we breathe. According to other report, analysis of the air in various parts of the world today reveals the frightening fact that the oxygen content continues to decline. In fact in some of the larger and therefore more polluted cities the oxygen levels have been measured at a disturbing level of 12 to 15%. Scientists claim that anything under 7% oxygen content in the air is too low to support human life, even for short periods.

Historical trends, as explained in Atmospheric Oxygen, Giant Paleozoic Insects and the Evolution of Aerial Locomotor Performance by R. Dudley, JExB, show a high of about 35% just before the beginning of the Permian, with a rapid decline to a low of about 13-14% near the beginning of the Triassic, then a small spike at about 17% in mid Triassic, another drop to about 14-15% early in the Jurassic, a sudden climb to about 21% by mid-Jurassic, then a gentle climb to about 26% early in the Tertiary, and a rather constant, steady decline to the present "20.9%."

Our planet´s future is under threat as cutting back tropical forests we put our supply of oxygen gas at risk.

There is difference in opinion about oxygen depletion. Some scientists believe that our atmosphere is endowed with such an enormous reserve of this gas that even if we were to burn all our fossil reserves, all our trees, and all the organic matter stored in soils, we would use up only a few percent of the available oxygen. No matter how foolishly we treat our environment heritage, we simply don´t have the capacity to put more than a small dent in our oxygen supply.

But we can´t take any risk. If forest or plants provide oxygen, cutting or burning trees is definitely going to affect the oxygen balance of our atmosphere.

Sources:

http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/quarterly/co2_article....html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen

http://www.sdpo.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&tas...id=61

http://www.columbia.edu/cu/21stC/issue-2.1/broecker.htm

by Pie Wed Sep 09, 2009 14:12

Car pollution is a capitalist only phenomenon is it?

I suppose you hanker after the good old Socialist claptrap that had China running around on bikes whilst the gang of 4 had limos and watched western films in their palaces.

Now look what has happened to China - it leads the world on production and is seen to be the power house of the future - all because its communist government have seen the light and embraced the free market and now we all supply each other.

Only yesterday there was an article on a new aircraft to be produced in China that had a list of features better than the current offerings from Boeing and Airbus. Now more western luxury cars are sold in Communist China than ever before! Communism gets a taste for western luxury eh?

Good - this is competition - this is what the free market strives for - competition makes for better products and more wealth. They buy from us we buy from them. That is how it works.

Communism/socialism/anarchy makes for bankrupt nations appalling human rights records and products such as the Trabant, Moskovich and Concordski – a plane so inefficient it could not carry a decent load and so badly made it fell out of the sky at the Paris airshow.

You tunnel vision merchants blame capitalism for all your ills if you want but do not be surprised if that leaves you in a dark hole wondering where the rest of us have moved on to.

But you keep blaming it all of those nasty capitalists – after all they make the profit that allows you to post on here.

by Duh Wed Sep 09, 2009 15:58

Long-term ocean oxygen depletion in response to carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels

Ongoing global warming could persist far into the future, because natural processes require decades to hundreds of thousands of years to remove carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning from the atmosphere.

Future warming may have large global impacts including ocean oxygen depletion and associated adverse effects on marine life, such as more frequent mortality events, but long, comprehensive simulations of these impacts are currently not available.

Here we project global change over the next 100,000 years using a low-resolution Earth system model9, and find severe, long-term ocean oxygen depletion, as well as a great expansion of ocean oxygen-minimum zones for scenarios with high emissions or high climate sensitivity.

We find that climate feedbacks within the Earth system amplify the strength and duration of global warming, ocean heating and oxygen depletion.

Decreased oxygen solubility from surface-layer warming accounts for most of the enhanced oxygen depletion in the upper 500 m of the ocean.

Possible weakening of ocean overturning and convection lead to further oxygen depletion, also in the deep ocean.

We conclude that substantial reductions in fossil-fuel use over the next few generations are needed if extensive ocean oxygen depletion for thousands of years is to be avoided.

by Zoe Wed Sep 09, 2009 16:06

New research shows oxygen depletion in the atmosphere accelerating since 2003, coinciding with the biofuels boom; climate policies that focus exclusively on carbon sequestration could be disastrous for all oxygen-breathing organisms including humans.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/O2DroppingFasterThanCO2Rising.php

Large decreases in atmospheric oxygen detected

Decrease in atmospheric O2 has been detected in stations around the world for the past decade, a consistent downward trend that has accelerated in recent years.

The largest fall in O2 was observed in the study of Swiss research team led by Francesco Valentino at University of Bern, for data collected at high altitude research stations in Switzerland and France. The Jungfraujoch (JFJ) station in Switzerland (3 580 m above sea level, 46o 33’N, 7o 50’E) is located on a mountain crest on the northern edge of the Swiss Alps. The Puy de Dôme station (1 480 m above sea level, 45o46’N, 2o 58’E) is situated west of the Alps at the summit of Puy de Dôme.

Threat of oxygen depletion

Mention climate change and everyone thinks of CO2 increasing in the atmosphere, the greenhouse effect heating the earth, glaciers melting, rising sea levels, floods, hurricanes, droughts, and a host of other environmental catastrophes. Climate mitigating policies are almost all aimed at reducing CO2, by whatever means.

Within the past several years, however, scientists have found that oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere has been dropping, and at higher rates than just the amount that goes into the increase of CO2 from burning fossil fuels, some 2 to 4-times as much, and accelerating since 2002-2003 [1-3]. Simultaneously, oxygen levels in the world’s oceans have also been falling [4] (see Warming Oceans Starved of Oxygen, SiS 44).

It is becoming clear that getting rid of CO2 is not enough; oxygen has its own dynamic and the rapid decline in atmospheric O2 must also be addressed. Although there is much more O2 than CO2 in the atmosphere - 20.95 percent or 209 460 ppm of O2 compared with around 380 ppm of CO2 – humans, all mammals, birds, frogs, butterfly, bees, and other air-breathing life-forms depend on this high level of oxygen for their well being [5] Living with Oxygen (SiS 43). In humans, failure of oxygen energy metabolism is the single most important risk factor for chronic diseases including cancer and death. ‘Oxygen deficiency’ is currently set at 19.5 percent in enclosed spaces for health and safety [6], below that, fainting and death may result.

The simultaneous decrease in ocean oxygen not only threatens the survival of aerobic marine organisms, but is symptomatic of the slow-down in the ocean’s thermohaline ‘conveyor belt’ circulation system that transports heat from the tropics to the poles, overturns surface layers of into the deep and vice versa, redistributing nutrients and gases for the ocean biosphere, and regulating rainfall and temperatures on the landmasses. This dynamical system is highly nonlinear, and small changes could make it fail altogether, with disastrous runaway effects on the climate [7] (Global Warming & then the Big Freeze, SiS 20). More importantly, it could wipe out the ocean’s phytoplankton that’s ultimately responsible for splitting water to regenerate oxygen for the entire biosphere, on land and in the sea [4].
Measuring O2 to better understand the earth’s carbon budget

Global CO2 records go back more than 50 years [8], but O2 measurement in combination with CO2 goes back barely two decades [9], and is already giving important information on the size of the carbon sink in the ocean relative to the land. For one thing, O2 and CO2 have very different solubility in seawater; while 99 percent of the O2 remains in the atmosphere, 98 percent of the CO2 is in seawater.

O2 and CO2 are exchanged in different processes on land, each having a different O2:CO2molar exchange ratio and thus distinguishable from one another. Fossil fuel combustion has a global average O2:CO2exchange ratio of about 1.4 moles of O2consumed per mole of CO2produced, whereas land plant photosynthesis generates an average net ratio of about 1.1 moles of O2 for each CO2fixed. These ratios can vary over spatial and temporal scales, depending on whether photosynthesis produces more oxygen than is consumed by respiration, and on the precise fossil fuel burnt (see later). The linkage between CO2 and O2 is broken, however, at the air-sea interface, where substantial O2 fluxes may be unaccompanied by fluxes of CO2 and vice versa.

By knowing the fossil fuel emissions and the exact value of the exchange ratios, one can separate the total CO2 uptake into land and ocean components on timescales of a few years. This has led to estimates of the land and ocean sinks to be 0.5 and 2.2 GtC/year respectively for the periods 1993 to 2003, with a fossil fuel increase rate of 6.5 GtC/y [10]. (see Box 1 for details on the calculations.)

A new atmospheric station has been established on the North Sea oil and gas production platform F3, 200 km north of the Dutch coast, which measures both CO2 and O2 continuously using the latest fuel cell and infrared technologies [11], and more precise data on sea-air exchanges are anticipated.

by James M Wed Sep 09, 2009 16:28

Since we have begun to measure in 1989, there has been a steady decline of free oxygen in our atmosphere. And while this is nothing more than expected, since every molecule of additional carbon dioxide locks up two oxygen atoms, the free oxygen decline is greater than the carbon dioxide lock-up.

The greater than expected overall free oxygen decline is proof that the Earth's photosynthetic capacity has declined. And since there has been no measurable decline in plankton, and consequently, in marine photosynthesis, as long expected and measured due to the increase of hard UVB radiation at surface level, the decline points straight at the only other source of free oxygen - the forests and green cover of the

by O2 user Wed Sep 09, 2009 16:34

As levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rise, concentrations of oxygen in our air have fallen, according to scientists at the Australian government research organisation, CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific Industrial Research Organisation.

"As fossil fuels burn, they generate carbon dioxide, using up oxygen in the process," explained Ray Langenfelds from CSIRO Atmospheric Research. "About half of the carbon dioxide from fossil fuels remains in the atmosphere," he says.

by We Wed Sep 09, 2009 18:59

Global aviation emissions should be capped as part of international efforts to tackle global warming, the UK government's official climate change advisor recommended today, ahead of crucial international climate negotiations in Copenhagen.

In a letter to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis and Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband, the Committee on Climate Change said that developed nations such as Britain must take a lead in making significant reductions in aviation emissions "ensuring that these are no higher - and possibly lower - than 2005 levels in the period to 2050." Emissions from international aviation and shipping were left out of the Kyoto climate treaty.

"The Climate Change Committee is right to call for the aviation industry to play its part in tackling global warming.

"International aviation emissions must be curbed as part of global plans to avoid catastrophic climate change.

"Rich countries must end their obsession with the growth of air travel, agree significant reductions in aviation emissions as part of a global climate agreement in Copenhagen, and ensure that this happens without cheating by carbon offsetting.

"The UK must also take action by reviewing its disastrous aviation policy and scrapping plans to allow UK airports to expand".

by Joker Thu Sep 10, 2009 09:25

Instead of car drivers gassing pedestrians and cyclists ....

by Joker 2 Thu Sep 10, 2009 10:53

Not that car drivers givva shit ....

by private marshall Thu Sep 10, 2009 16:37

http://ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=48382

Thalif Deen interviews RICHARD KOZUL-WRIGHT, chief of the U.N.'s Development Strategy and Policy Analysis Unit

UNITED NATIONS, Sep 9 (IPS) - When world leaders meet for a mega talk-fest on climate change at the United Nations in late September, the focus will be more on politics and less on finance.

"No new financial commitments to support the efforts of developing countries were expected during the summit," says Janos Pasztor, director of the U.N.'s Climate Change Support Team.

"But it is hoped there would be a new framework (for funding arrangements)," he adds cautiously.

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the summit's strongest proponent, says he expects more than 100 world leaders to participate in the one-day meeting scheduled to take place Sep. 22.

"I expect them to demonstrate their political leadership. I expect them to play their role as global leaders, addressing these challenges (of climate change), which require global leadership and global solidarity."

The 'World Economic and Social Survey 2009', published by the U.N.’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs and released last week, estimates that between 500 billion and 600 billion dollars would be needed annually to address some of the problems caused by climate change, which will be on the agenda of a major international conference in Copenhagen in December.

Last year, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown unveiled the 'Roadmap to Copenhagen', including a proposal for 100 billion dollars to be raised annually to finance mitigation and adaptation measures, especially in the world's poorest nations facing droughts, floods, deforestation, sea-level rise and pollution.

But that proposed funding, mostly by Western donors, still falls far short of the targets set by the United Nations.

"Billions in public financing will be required," warns Ban, "There must be new money, not just re-packaged official development assistance (ODA)."

"If we can bail out banks," he argues, "certainly we can find the funds to protect millions, if not billions of people and their means of survival."

In an interview with IPS U.N. Bureau Chief Thalif Deen, Richard Kozul-Wright, chief of the Development Strategy and Policy Analysis Unit at the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, says finance issues are an integral part of the climate change debate. "I think the summit can have a very positive impact. The secretary general has insisted on the need for vision, urgency and leadership on the climate issue and has been working very hard to provide these," he said.

He said the summit will be an opportunity for member states, and particularly the leading players, to show their support for his efforts and to move the discussion forward as the clock ticks down on reaching a deal in Copenhagen, including a new global treaty on greenhouse gas emissions.

.

Excerpts from the interview follow.

IPS: Against the backdrop of the present global financial crisis, what are the chances of increased funding from rich nations?

RICHARD KOZUL-WRIGHT: Strictly speaking, chance should not have anything to do with it as advanced country governments have (at previous climate change meetings in Kyoto and Bali) signed up to meeting the additional financing costs incurred by developing countries in their mitigation and adaptation efforts.

Moreover, developed countries - including now the United States and Australia - have accepted the scientific evidence that anthropomorphic activity lies behind the already dangerous rise in global temperatures, and that if developing countries follow their example, then the consequences will be dire for everyone.

That activity has been located - predominantly - in rich countries. Indeed, the high carbon growth path adopted by these countries lies behind both the climate challenges and the massive income gaps that currently characterise the global economic landscape. The good news is that their success also means that these countries have the resources to tackle climate change both in their own country and developing countries.

IPS: Are there are new sources of potential funding available?

KW: The World Economic and Social Survey (WESS) suggests various mechanisms through which new resources could be mobilised for this purposes, including green bonds and the re-direction of existing government expenditure - e.g. from military purposes or the subsidies that currently go to high carbon energy services - to meet climate threats at home and abroad.

Moreover, one thing that the financial crisis has shown is that determined governments can, if the political will exists, very quickly mobilise finance on a massive scale in response to a systemic shock - and to the tune of many trillions of dollars.

The one percent of global gross domestic product - between 500 and 600 billion dollars - which WESS suggests as a (annual) ballpark figure to tackle climate change in developing countries is of course the figure that the United States committed after World War Two to help reconstruct Europe - the Marshall Plan.

At that time, many in the United States argued that the country did not have the money or that it would be wasted, but in fact it was an important factor not only in helping reconstruction in Europe - and defeating political extremism there - but also in furthering American economic interests abroad.

Our own big push story is seen in similar terms as providing a win-win scenario for North and South and the modeling exercise in chapter one (of WESS) tries to show that a big investment push on the scale we are suggesting is consistent with strong global growth, including in developed countries.

IPS: Which should take precedence in the battle against climate change: political efforts or economic efforts?

KW: Ultimately it is the continuation of sustainable growth that matters to any financing effort by these countries. Indeed, in light of the crisis, the shift in investment dynamic away from speculative investments towards more productive long-term investments - in renewable energy services, transportation, etc - is precisely what all countries need to do to bring about a more stable and balanced global economy.

That doesn't mean that political effort isn’t required from the leaders of advanced countries to make the case for large scale funding. But one hopes that having persuaded their citizens that it was necessary to use their money to save banking communities from extinction that they can be equally persuasive in making the case that other communities - including possibly the whole human species - do not suffer that fate.

IPS: How confident are you about the proposal for the creation of a global clean energy fund? What would be the primary objectives of such a fund?

KW: Obviously the need for such a fund follows from the previous logic of a big push and the recognition that existing bilateral and multilateral financing mechanisms have not - since the Marshall Plan - been designed to deliver such a push.

Donor countries have begun to accept that the aid architecture has not been functioning very well, in part because it is too fragmented and politicised, and that multilateral financing has failed to support the adjustments needed for inclusive and sustainable growth in developing countries.

This can hopefully provide the basis for a frank and open discussion of whether that same architecture is likely to function effectively when the climate challenge is added to existing development challenges. The focus of a clean energy fund would be very much on large-scale investments to expand capacity in renewable energy services as well as related investments in energy efficiency.

However, given that there are significant complementarities between the production and consumption of energy services, related investments in transportation, for example, could conceivably fall under its financing profile. It would certainly have to be geared to supporting very large financial transfers.

IPS: Should such a fund be under the aegis of the United Nations or the World Bank?

KW: Developing countries are very sensitive to how such a fund should be managed, given the undemocratic governance arrangements that have characterised the Bretton Woods institutions (the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund), and their tendency to perpetuate indebtedness and other sources of economic vulnerability.

Moreover, even on their own internal assessments these institutions have not had a good record when it comes to factoring climate change in to their lending profile. Certainly our own assessment suggests that these institutions have shifted a long way from the principles that made the Marshall Plan a successful programme.

It is possible that these institutions could recover those principles but whether they can or cannot should not be decided by creditor countries alone but must be worked out with developing countries, particularly as many of these feel very strongly that financing for climate must not leave them with undiversified economies, exposed to unsustainable levels of debt, and still vulnerable to external shocks - even if they do have cleaner energy services.

In that respect, of course, the climate financing architecture must be part of a wider discussion of the reform of the international financial architecture in the post-crisis world.

by Marcela Valente Thu Sep 10, 2009 16:46

South America is perhaps most often associated with the Amazon jungle, the world's largest tropical rainforest. But along its western edge, from Ecuador to southern Chile and Argentina, it also harbours huge glaciers which are rapidly melting due to global warming.

The 18,000-year-old Chacaltaya glacier in the Bolivian Andes disappeared in August. Experts had forecast that it would survive until 2015, but it melted sooner than predicted, and what used to be famed as the world's highest ski run, 5,300 metres above sea level, is now a boulder-strewn slope with a few patches of ice near the top.

In Ecuador, an avalanche at the base of the Cayambe glacier killed three tourists and a mountain guide this year. And in May, an avalanche caused serious damage in the area of Pampa Linda, at the base of Monte Tronador (Thundering Mountain) in southern Argentina, when a glacier collapsed.

These isolated avalanches confirm the trend towards the collapse of the Andean glaciers, experts say.

"Glaciers in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia have their days numbered," Juan Carlos Villalonga, head of the Argentine chapter of the global environmental watchdog Greenpeace, told IPS. The ice sheets in Cuyo, in western Argentina, and the even larger ice sheets of Patagonia, shared between Argentina and Chile in the southwest of the continent, are also shrinking.

According to Greenpeace, the melting of the glaciers must be a cause for concern among the world leaders who will be meeting in Copenhagen in December for the 15th United Nations Climate Change Conference, and greater commitment is needed to curb the greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming.

In an interview with IPS, glaciologist Ricardo Villalba of the Argentine Institute of Snow Research, Glaciology and Environmental Sciences (IANIGLA) said that the retreat of the glaciers' enormous ice masses "is a global process which began in 1850 and has accelerated since 1970."

However, this process "is not an even one," he said. "In Ecuador or Bolivia, where the glaciers are smaller, they tend to collapse more quickly," whereas in Argentina, some are shrinking at an alarming rate while others are surviving, depending on temperature and rainfall.

On average, however, glaciers in Patagonia have shrunk by between 10 and 20 percent in the last 20 years. "If this trend persists, the ice will all disappear within 60 or 70 years," he said.

In a study updated in August, "Cambio Climático: futuro negro para los glaciares" (Climate Change: A Black Future for Glaciers), Greenpeace Argentina warns that the melting of glaciers in South America is accelerating. The report contains a reminder that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted this trend in 2007.

According to the IPCC, the average global temperature has risen by 0.74 degrees over the last 100 years, and the area permanently covered by ice and snow has shrunk. It also indicates that 11 out of the last 12 years have been the hottest since 1850, and global temperature is forecast to continue to rise this century.

"One of the effects climate change is expected to have is a massive loss of permanent ice cover on the earth's surface, from the polar ice caps as well as from different bodies of continental ice," the Greenpeace report says. This will have severe consequences, it stresses.

In first place, sea levels will rise, causing forced migration and the loss of coastal infrastructure. The proportion of reflecting ice on the earth's surface will also shrink, increasing the amount of solar radiation absorbed by the earth and exacerbating global warming.

But above all, the melting of the glaciers means the loss of vast reserves of fresh water for human consumption, and for the rivers that provide hydroelectric power. These losses will particularly affect the Andes highlands in South America.

"South America has a surprising variety of glaciers along the length of the Andes mountain range, and the largest of them are found in Patagonia," says the Greenpeace study. In Ecuador, "their disappearance is imminent," and the significance of this is underlined by the fact that 50 percent of the water used by the population of Quito is glacier meltwater.

The report confirms the findings of a 2008 research study by the World Bank, titled "Impact of Climate Change in Latin America", which points out that 70 percent of the world's tropical glaciers are in the Andes mountains, in Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.

In Peru alone, where millions of people depend on meltwater for their daily supply, 22 percent of the surface area of glaciers has been lost in little over 30 years. The Quelcaya ice cap has lost 20 percent of its volume since 1963, the study says. "It has retreated faster in the last century than in the previous 500 years," according to Greenpeace.

"In the 1990s, the rate of retreat has risen to 30 metres a year," Greenpeace said, referring to this glacier that supplies Lima with its water.

In Argentina, the immense ice sheets in Cuyo "are in a highly critical situation," the report notes. Water is scarce in this part of the country: in the western province of Mendoza, for instance, only three percent of the land is oasis; the rest is desert and depends heavily on icemelt for water.

In Patagonia, some 20,000 square kilometres of glaciers are shared between Argentina and Chile. The Southern Ice Field in both countries spreads over 13,000 square kilometres, the Northern Ice Field in Chile covers 4,200 square kilometres, and the Darwin mountain range glaciers, also shared by the two countries, cover 2,500 square kilometres.

"Many of the largest glaciers in these ice fields have thinned alarmingly and retreated several kilometres," except for two of them, the Perito Moreno glacier in Argentina and the Pío XI glacier in Chile, which are stable or even advancing, Greenpeace says.

In Villalba's view, the fragile glacier ecosystem depends on the balance between the amount of snowfall and the temperature, which must be low, otherwise the glaciers collapse. He said that the recent retreat of the glaciers is associated mainly with the rise in temperature.

"The Upsala glacier, for instance, is retreating amazingly fast," Villalba said. The glacier flows into Lago Argentino, in the southern province of Santa Cruz, and its contact with the lake accelerates its erosion. The same is true for the Viedma glacier, in the same province.

"As long as greenhouse gases continue to be released into the atmosphere, the ice will melt at an increasing rate, which is why we are calling for a reduction in the use of fossil fuels and the pursuit of alternative energies," Villalba said.

by Wambi Michael Thu Sep 10, 2009 16:55

As the world's attention increasingly turns to the impact of climate change, at least one project intended to reduce global carbon emissions is accused of displacing indigenous persons from their home in Uganda.

Under carbon trading programmes, companies that release greenhouse gases can either reduce their emissions or buy the right to keep on polluting, by paying for emissions-reducing projects somewhere else.

The United Nations considers carbon markets an efficient system to guide investments toward cutting greenhouse emissions. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) established by the Kyoto Protocol allows two types of forestry offsets: reforestation of previously forested areas and afforestation, that is, planting new trees where forests have not existed for over 50 years.

Carbon trading is divided into two separate markets: the compliance market - as provided for under the CDM and the European Union's Emission Trading Scheme, mandatory programmes worth 32 billion dollars last year - and the much smaller voluntary carbon offset market.

Voluntary carbon offsets involve individuals, companies and even governments to pay for projects to mitigate their greenhouse gas emissions. These projects range from wind farms and other renewable energy sources, to efforts to reduce methane released from landfills, to forestry.

The voluntary carbon offset market is growing rapidly, but in Uganda, the Forests Absorbing Carbon-dioxide Emissions Foundation (FACE), a Dutch organisation involved in the voluntary carbon market, has generated controversy as indigenous people in the Mount Elgon region have been displaced to clear the way for tree-planting projects.

The Uganda Wildlife Authority-FACE Foundation project involves planting of trees inside the boundaries of Mount Elgon National Park.

The project entails FACE Foundation planting 25,000 hectares of trees to absorb carbon dioxide and in doing so, offsetting emissions from a new 600 MW coal- fired power station in the Netherlands. FACE Foundation then sells the credits to GreenSeat, a Dutch carbon-offset business with Western clients, mainly airline companies.

Early last year, GreenSeat calculated that it costs a mere 28 dollars to plant 66 trees which "compensates" for the carbon-dioxide emissions of a return flight from Frankfurt to Kampala.

Although the project has a guaranteed lifespan of 99 years, the indigenous communities on the mountain are bitterly opposed to it.

Moses Mwanga, chairperson of the Benet Lobby Group, an organisation pushing for the rights of the Benet, told IPS during a visit to the area that the evictions have caused indescribable suffering to the Benet who are now living as squatters, having lost their land and other belongings to armed park rangers.

With an estimated 123 million tons of carbon credits traded in 2008, the voluntary carbon market across the world nearly doubled from 65 million tons of credit traded in 2007.

A report published jointly by carbon market analysts at Ecosystems Marketplace and New Carbon Finance - both U.S.-based observers of global trading in emissions credits - indicated that voluntary carbon trading credits were worth $705 million, up from $331 million in 2007.

by Servaas van den Bosch Thu Sep 10, 2009 16:58

"African farmers will play a major part in the solution of climate change mitigation," predicts Dennis Garrity, head of the World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF).

"Deforestation contributes to 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions. Counting the loss of trees on agricultural land this number increases to 34 percent," says Global Coordinator of the Alternatives to Slash and Burn Partnership, Peter Minang.

For both agroforestry scientists, planting trees on farms on a massive scale will yield more than just timber, fruits and fertiliser.

"Agroforestry provides an important carbon sink and takes pressure off remaining tropical forests," Garrity says. "Already 70 percent of Kenya’s wood is grown on farms."

On 46 percent of the world’s farmlands - or 1 billion hectares, harboring 500 million people - tree cover exceeds 10 percent, states a newly-released ICRAF study.

Reason, according to scientists at the recently-held World Agroforestry Congress in Nairobi, to include agroforests in the negotiations over a Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD) climate deal at the 15th Conference of the Parties (COP) in Copenhagen this December.

"Through agroforestry-mitigation, Africa can tap into the $118 billion carbon market and use the proceeds for crucial adaptation efforts," agrees Minang. "But the continent is divided on what REDD should entail."

Whereas the 10 Congo basin countries, united in the Central African Forest Commission (COMIFAC), want a deal on forests alone, the Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA) favours a broad AFOLU (Agriculture, Forestry and other Land Use) perspective, proposing a REDD Plus that includes agriculture.

"Which makes sense for countries like Kenya that are 80 percent semi-arid," explains Minang.

The African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN) supports REDD, but is wary of its potential to access markets and wants to include agriculture in a redesigned Clean Development Mechanism.

"The problem," says Minang "is that CDMs have not worked in Africa. Only four percent of global CDM projects are on this continent. Of the forty projects involving forests, only four are in Africa and none has passed the registration stage."

The African Union, in a concept note for the Conference of African Heads of State and Government on Climate Change (CAHOSCC) that met in Addis Ababa on Aug. 24, resolved that: "A REDD-Plus mechanism should be designed in such a way as to accommodate different national circumstances and respective capabilities."

Some fear Africa’s fragmented position will diminish its chances in Copenhagen.

"Africa should go to Copenhagen with a united voice and tell the industrialized countries they have a moral issue on their hands. They should not allow Africa to suffer of a disaster that is not of its own making. Yet, if we are fragmented we will be taken advantage off," Nobel laureate Wangari Mathaai told IPS in Nairobi.

But United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) chief Achim Steiner seemed skeptical of a comprehensive climate deal in December.

"We are just a hundred days away from Copenhagen and the negotiations are in a state of mutual frustration and lack of progress. I find that very worrying. Looking at the pace and scale of the negotiating process at the moment one would be naïve not be concerned at what can happen in just a few months," Steiner told journalists.

"REDD’s not dead. Even if it doesn’t have legs to it coming out of Copenhagen, there’s the market that’s happening outside of Kyoto as well," says Jay Samek, researcher with the Global Observatory for Ecosystem Services of Michigan State University and involved with the institute’s Carbon2Markets initiative.

"Carbon is sold for 25 cents a metric tonne on the Chicago Climate Exchange in quantities of one Carbon Financial Instrument (CFI), or 100 metric tonnes," says Samek.

"Carbon sequestration on one hectare is perhaps 10 metric tonnes a year, so if ten farmers work together to offer one CFI each year to the markets, after 15 years they each get $375.

"The big risk involved for buyers of carbon in treed landscapes though is that of permanence," he warns.

Although scientists are relatively sure about tropical forests, determining carbon sequestration in the agricultural-forest mosaic of agroforestry projects is a headache, compounded by a variety in farming practices, land reform and economic upheavals.

But trees will become a carbon cash crop in the future, argues Rodell Lasco, senior scientist at the International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF) "Right now financial barriers and governance issues make it seem unpractical, but when the countries of the world get their act together and start addressing climate change seriously, agroforestry can very well turn out to be a cheap alternative compared to other options in the West."

Samek agrees. "There is a lot of money being invested getting ready for REDD and prices will go up when legislation catches up and companies are forced to cap and trade."

In 2007 the Norwegian government pledged two billion dollars for forest conversation projects around the world while insisting that a REDD mechanism should become part of a post-Kyoto climate deal when the protocol lapses in 2012.

Samek: "But even on a voluntary basis there is a lot of activity in the markets and many opportunities for companies to make use of it. We are for instance talking to Cadbury’s about a carbon-label on their chocolate, highlighting the mitigating impact cocoa-plantations have and perhaps people are willing to pay extra for it.

"It’s really about how to bring the market system into it. As we eliminate the hurdles, it becomes relevant to ask the question if we can set different prices for different forms of mitigation. Can we ask more money for a system that’s not just a plantation, but preserves biodiversity and offers other co-benefits to farmers?"

by Personal Mon May 14, 2012 18:58

Was just doing a spot of research and coincidentally stumbled upon this old thread, here seems to be an appropriate space as I cannot be arsed to write an article.

Good bye Oxygen?

Not only are phytoplankton, also known as marine algae, a vital component in the ocean's food chain, they generate at least half of the oxygen we breathe.